RamenO
It Stinks!
The more I play Skarlet, the more I realize that probably of all the DLC she is probably the worst. She's not bad, but she has real issues not only with matchups but with technical issues as well. For example, she lacks a true wake up attack, her best option being EN Red Dash, but only because it has armor not invincibility.
Her teleport(Blood Drop) doesn't track like it should, and you can in fact avoid it completely if you do something as simple as walk forward a bit before it hits for a free punish. What I find the most odd about it is that not only can it not even be used to punish some of the faster recovering projectiles due to how slow it is, but it also misses on opponents sometimes because the hittable box isn't large enough. I've had it whiff on an Ermac doing a Forceball because it leans him forward, so I whiff it completely. Odd that I'll get punished for trying to use it as a counter zoning tool only to have it undershoot at times.
All of her 50/50 options are unsafe, so if you guess wrong, you eat punishment, hard. According to XXZ's post the only thing really safe is Red Dash, but even that is -1 on block, so you will eat a D1 if done outside of anything but her 112 reset.
She lacks a low launcher attack, so most if not all of her attacks are easily circumvented by simply blocking high. The only thing you have to worry about in terms of lows is the Red Dash into Slide or a simple sweep. I guess you could do B1, 1 , B4 but that just knocks them down at your feet for little damage. In some matchups this is not what you want. She's like the opposite of Stryker in this regard. You can crouch block Stryker all day and not have a worry in the world(aside from his telegraphed B3, 2), and the same seems to be true for Skarlet once you realize her options on her strings.
Her Dagger Toss(kunai essentially) projectile is great for building meter, but as an actual zoning tool, it's fairly mediocre if it hits. Little to worry about considering it's not even a true combo so you can always get hit by the first kunai, and block the second for a measly 4% damage total(3% if the first hits, 1% on chip for the second). As she's mostly supposed to be played as a zoner from what I gather, this is pretty weak. Since the kunai aren't true combos either this makes trades never in her favor. A Baraka could take the trade all day because the first kunai would knock him out of recovery allowing him to block the second. I really wish it was a true combo if you didn't delay the second, because even the EN seems to be a waste; it maxes out at 7% if the math in training is correct(5%, though the combo counter says 6%, and the second does 2%, so maybe 8% total?). To be quite honest, I feel she will lose to even the hybrid zoner type characters such as Liu Kang given these faults.
Her air projectile is also nothing to write home about, considering that only does 4% damage if it hits, and following after is hugely damage scaled(if you're even able to considering you have to be close)...though at least the EN air Dagger Toss is a very useful tool as it's almost impossible to avoid sans a perfectly timed teleport. Still, it feels like a case of anything she can do in terms of zoning, others such as Kitana can do better.
Many people will undoubtedly overlook these faults and point out the pushback on her kunai, the ability to follow a Red Slide into a Down/Upslash, etc. but a good majority of the things making Skarlet appear so fearsome and good are things getting fixed(the bugs) or things getting tweaked/nerfed. I also attribute the Skarlet hype in terms of her overall game being so "good" is lack of matchup knowledge versus her. The first kunai has almost no block stun, so if you try a 50/50 with a dash cancel after they block it, you can easily be uppercutted.
I'm not saying she won't win any majors or she's trash or anything, but I think a lot of people are overestimating how good she is, especially with that new tier chart by Brady(which doesn't factor in the nerfs/fixes coming). I still like her given these negatives and will continue to play her, but I really am curious if I'm alone in this assessment or if I'm missing something.
Her teleport(Blood Drop) doesn't track like it should, and you can in fact avoid it completely if you do something as simple as walk forward a bit before it hits for a free punish. What I find the most odd about it is that not only can it not even be used to punish some of the faster recovering projectiles due to how slow it is, but it also misses on opponents sometimes because the hittable box isn't large enough. I've had it whiff on an Ermac doing a Forceball because it leans him forward, so I whiff it completely. Odd that I'll get punished for trying to use it as a counter zoning tool only to have it undershoot at times.
All of her 50/50 options are unsafe, so if you guess wrong, you eat punishment, hard. According to XXZ's post the only thing really safe is Red Dash, but even that is -1 on block, so you will eat a D1 if done outside of anything but her 112 reset.
She lacks a low launcher attack, so most if not all of her attacks are easily circumvented by simply blocking high. The only thing you have to worry about in terms of lows is the Red Dash into Slide or a simple sweep. I guess you could do B1, 1 , B4 but that just knocks them down at your feet for little damage. In some matchups this is not what you want. She's like the opposite of Stryker in this regard. You can crouch block Stryker all day and not have a worry in the world(aside from his telegraphed B3, 2), and the same seems to be true for Skarlet once you realize her options on her strings.
Her Dagger Toss(kunai essentially) projectile is great for building meter, but as an actual zoning tool, it's fairly mediocre if it hits. Little to worry about considering it's not even a true combo so you can always get hit by the first kunai, and block the second for a measly 4% damage total(3% if the first hits, 1% on chip for the second). As she's mostly supposed to be played as a zoner from what I gather, this is pretty weak. Since the kunai aren't true combos either this makes trades never in her favor. A Baraka could take the trade all day because the first kunai would knock him out of recovery allowing him to block the second. I really wish it was a true combo if you didn't delay the second, because even the EN seems to be a waste; it maxes out at 7% if the math in training is correct(5%, though the combo counter says 6%, and the second does 2%, so maybe 8% total?). To be quite honest, I feel she will lose to even the hybrid zoner type characters such as Liu Kang given these faults.
Her air projectile is also nothing to write home about, considering that only does 4% damage if it hits, and following after is hugely damage scaled(if you're even able to considering you have to be close)...though at least the EN air Dagger Toss is a very useful tool as it's almost impossible to avoid sans a perfectly timed teleport. Still, it feels like a case of anything she can do in terms of zoning, others such as Kitana can do better.
Many people will undoubtedly overlook these faults and point out the pushback on her kunai, the ability to follow a Red Slide into a Down/Upslash, etc. but a good majority of the things making Skarlet appear so fearsome and good are things getting fixed(the bugs) or things getting tweaked/nerfed. I also attribute the Skarlet hype in terms of her overall game being so "good" is lack of matchup knowledge versus her. The first kunai has almost no block stun, so if you try a 50/50 with a dash cancel after they block it, you can easily be uppercutted.
I'm not saying she won't win any majors or she's trash or anything, but I think a lot of people are overestimating how good she is, especially with that new tier chart by Brady(which doesn't factor in the nerfs/fixes coming). I still like her given these negatives and will continue to play her, but I really am curious if I'm alone in this assessment or if I'm missing something.
